Ishe Smith defeats Ryan Davis via strange knockout

Las Vegas – It was a short, uneventful, and seemingly rehearsed second round knockdown that carried thirty-five-year old Las Vegas native Ishe “Sugar Shay” Smith (26-6, 12 KOs) to victory over Illinois’ Ryan “Dangerous” Davis (24-14-3, 7 KOs) at the well-attended card inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Although Davis wore pink-striped Pippi Longstocking-style stockings into the ring, his wardrobe was not as interesting as the ending that Smith provided for fans.

The first round started out with Smith attacking Davis with his jab.  As Smith landed a few uncontested shots, he progressively began to build some confidence in his step.

Smith soon scored with a hard overhand left that not only stunned Davis momentarily, but also wowed the chanting, pro-Ishe aficionados in attendance.

Smith then cornered Davis with an unstoppable jab and body shot onslaught, adding blows to the head for good measure.  Before the bell rang, Smith complained a little to the referee, making reference to Davis’ low punches.

It was an acceptable and crowd-pleasing first round, and things were barely getting started.  At least it felt that way.

Davis began to step it up in Round Two, answering Smith’s continuously piercing jab.  For a few quick seconds, Davis comfortably kept up with Smith’s pace.

However, as Smith turned up the speed and frequency of his jab, what came next happened almost in slow motion.  An outside left to the head from Smith took down Davis, and suddenly, the fight was over.

Smith’s knockdown looked ridiculously easy, almost too easy.  Not to undermine Smith’s innate ability and talent, but the knockdown looked as though Davis was expecting to go down.

As the referee made the count, Davis, seemingly very alert and able, nevertheless waited on the count to reach ten.  Davis likely had more to offer, but somehow the fight ended with an awkward finale.

In fairness, this is what can happen when a journeyman fighter takes a bout on late notice (Davis replaced Erislandy Lara) against a more talented boxer, such as Smith.

Often the lesser fighter does not actually believe he can win, and acts accordingly.

In this instance, the unusual ending arguably was caused by a Smith punch packed with enough hidden sizzle to disorient Davis while simultaneously keeping him 1) fully alert, 2) seemingly lucid, and 3) with wide open eyes.

Or perhaps Davis -- easily discouraged, content with his earnings, and unwilling to go the extra mile -- simply showed the lack of spirit one would expect from a 14-loss club fighter accustomed to losing, and deliberately chose not to fight anymore.

Either way, for fans who initially hoped weeks ago to see a Smith-Lara matchup of highly-skilled fighters, Friday's bizarre knockout was a letdown to say the least.

News and Notes

• Erislandy Lara, who Davis replaced, dropped out of the fight with Smith so that he could get a much bigger payday this summer against rising star Canelo Alvarez.  The Lara-Alvarez press tour will commence next week.

• The Smith-Davis 10-round bout was presented by Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions, and was the precursor card to tomorrow’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Marcos Maidana bout at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

• Floyd Mayweather today weighed in for his mega-fight at 146 pounds, 1 pound under the welterweight limit.  His opponent, Marcos Maidana, weighed in at 146.5 pounds.

• On the Mayweather-Maidana undercard, Amir Khan weighed in at 147 pounds.  His opponent, Luis Collazo, also weighed in at the welterweight limit of 147 pounds.

By Felix Hernandez
Contributing Writer for TheDailySportsHerald.com